The man who hears colour

Fascinating!
“Artist Neil Harbisson is completely colour-blind. Here, he explains how a camera attached to his head allows him to hear colour.

Until I was 11, I didn’t know I could only see in shades of grey. I thought I could see colours but that I was confusing them.

When I was diagnosed with achromatopsia [a rare vision disorder], it was a bit of a shock but at least we knew what was wrong. Doctors said it was impossible to cure.

When I was 16, I decided to study art. I told my tutor I could only see in black and white, and his first reaction was, “What the hell are you doing here then?” I told him I really wanted to understand what colour was.

I was allowed to do the entire art course in greyscale – only using black and white. I did very figurative art, trying to reproduce what I could see so that people could compare how my vision was to what they saw. I also learnt that through history, there have been many people who have related colour to sound.”

… “But my favourite colour is aubergine. It looks black but it is actually violet or purple, and it sounds very high-pitched.”

Neil Harbisson spoke to Outlook on the BBC World Service. Listen to the programme here.

for the full story go to  BBC News – The man who hears colour.

The Cool Hunter – The Power of Color

The Power of Color

“Black and white are the safe choices in the design world. The color of luxury is elegant and subdued. Yet, at the same time, even top-tier designers, artists and luxury brands have always used bright colors as well. It is not about either or. It is not black-and-white or color.”

via The Cool Hunter – The Power of Color.

CultureLab: Colour me beautiful: Wellcome Image Awards winners

CultureLab: Colour me beautiful: Wellcome Image Awards winners.

“I want a scarf that looks like that.” So remarked one member of the New Scientist art department upon seeing the micrograph of cell division (above) that received a special honour at this year’s Wellcome Image Awards. see the full story and beautiful images via the link above.

 

 

Announcing the Color of the Year for 2011: PANTONE® 18-2120 Honeysuckle, a Vibrant, Energetic Hue

A Color for All SeasonsCourageous. Confident. Vital. A brave new color, for a brave new world. Let the bold spirit of Honeysuckle infuse you, lift you and carry you through the year. It’s a color for every day – with nothing “everyday” about it.While the 2010 color of the year, PANTONE 15-5519 Turquoise, served as an escape for many, Honeysuckle emboldens us to face everyday troubles with verve and vigor. A dynamic reddish pink, Honeysuckle is encouraging and uplifting. It elevates our psyche beyond escape, instilling the confidence, courage and spirit to meet the exhaustive challenges that have become part of everyday life.“In times of stress, we need something to lift our spirits. Honeysuckle is a captivating, stimulating color that gets the adrenaline going – perfect to ward off the blues,” explains Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “Honeysuckle derives its positive qualities from a powerful bond to its mother color red, the most physical, viscerally alive hue in the spectrum.”Eiseman continues, “The intensity of this festive reddish pink allures and engages. In fact, this color, not the sweet fragrance of the flower blossoms for which it was named, is what attracts hummingbirds to nectar. Honeysuckle may also bring a wave of nostalgia for its associated delicious scent reminiscent of the carefree days of spring and summer.”….Read on @ Fashion + Home – Announcing the Color of the Year for 2011: PANTONE® 18-2120 Honeysuckle, a Vibrant, Energetic Hue.

PANTONE Color of the Year 2011 can be found in the following PANTONE Color Systems:

fashion + home:		18-2120 TCX or 18-2120 TPX
fashion + home CMYK:		C M Y K 4 75 24 0
PLUS SERIES:		205 U (closest match)
PLUS SERIES CMYK:		C M Y K 0 86 16 0
RGB:		R G B 203 101 134
Goe™ System:		26-2-4
Plastics:		Q190-3-1

Download the PANTONE 18-2120 Honeysuckle press release here.

eye | review ‘Poetry of colour’ review of Interaction of Color:

‘Poetry of colour’  review of Interaction of Color:

New and Complete Edition by Josef Albers by @robgiampietro in Eye75

“Poetry of colour

Interaction of Color: New and Complete Edition

By Josef Albers

Yale University Press, £150

Reviewed by Rob Giampietro

“There are two types of primary colours: additive and subtractive. The subtractive primaries (CMYK) are made of pigment and become darker when combined, while the additive primaries (RGB) are made of light and become brighter when combined. In this formulation, Yale University Press’s new expanded edition of Josef Albers’ Interaction of Color is distinctly additive, brightening the corners of this influential classic and broadening it to a two-volume slipcased set….]”

eye | review. the Eye website, an index of the quarterly print magazine for everyone involved in graphic design and visual culture

and don’t forget to take a peek at the EYE Magazine blog

SS 2011 PANTONE WEBINAR

color for Spring/Summer 2011
March 17 – PANTONE WEBINAR SERIES – 10:00 AM, 12:00PM or 3:00PM (EST) – Emphasize beauty through the use of color for Spring/Summer 2011. Presented by Laurie Pressman. Register for a session now by clicking the link below

Pantone Webinar

The End of the Rainbow? – colour meme

From Print – http://www.printmag.com/Article/The-End-of-the-Rainbow

The End of the Rainbow?  by Jude Stewart

“Near the beginning of the move The Devil Wears Prada, Meryl Streep delivers a monologue to the young Anne Hathaway about how the “lumpy,” cerulean sweater that she “chose” was, in fact, chosen for her—by the various business interests who make their profits by choosing those very colors. But aren’t our color hungers more complex than that? We’re fed emotionally by certain colors, and then we surfeit on them, as if we’ve been eating the same vegetable for too long. And right now, one such meme has been ascendant for awhile now: what I like to call the iRainbow.

You know the one: a series of translucent lollipop colors crisply arrayed on a white background. It started its public climb with the Apple iMac, evoking a humming technological future where cleanness met creativity, work and play happily blurred, where the pot of gold wasn’t sequestered to the rainbow’s end but instead scintillated, coin by coin, throughout the entire arc. Instead of the jarring Crayola rainbow of childhood, this CMYK rainbow felt subtly balanced in its hues, democratic and inclusive,”.…… read the full article  here …

Cover of The Visual Miscellaneum by David McCandless, founder of InformationisBeautiful.net

Web Trends Map v4.0 by Information Architects, 2004

SDC International Design Competition 2010

A reminder that the SDC International Design Competition 2010 has been launched. The brief asks for a creative, imaginative and original use of colour in fashion or textiles, with a theme of social responsibility, which might see entrants answering questions along the lines of:..

“Full details of the brief and the required deliverables are available to download from the SDC website, along with information on how to enter/competition rules. The competition is open to fashion or textile undergraduate students in the following countries:

// Australia // China // Hong Kong // India // Ireland // New Zealand // Pakistan // Singapore // South Africa // UK

Tutors must pre-select three students per college to enter the regional heats. These will generally be held in the 2nd quarter of 2010 and dates will be announced when available. All country finalists will be invited to the grand final in London in October 2010 and will be in for a chance of winning the SDC Colour Design Award 2010, with a prize of £1000 plus the Veronica Bell Trophy.”

via A world of colour in blog form.

Issue 4 of Colour: Design & Creativity

From the society of dyers and colourists

www.colour-journal.org –  Issue 4 of Colour: Design & Creativity

“As a colour education resource, the online journal Colour: Design & Creativity is vital for you and your students. The journal
seeks to nurture a better understanding of colour and its application in design theory and practice, in particular the synergy
between colour and design, and includes articles on basic, applied and theoretical research related to colour. Articles are
freely available and we invite you to view these today.

Latest article: We are pleased to announce the latest article has been published online at www.colour-journal.org. It is a paper
that deals the effects of coloured lighting on emotional expression (see link below).
Effects of Coloured Lighting on Judgement of Emotional Expression

New procedures: We would also like to inform you that from Sept 2009, we have changed the publishing procedures. We now
work to an ‘open issue’ publishing schedule. This means that Issue 4 is now open for articles and we will announce to subscribers
every time an article is published online. This is beneficial to authors and readers as articles are made available as soon as
possible after they have been accepted.

Forthcoming issue: Preliminary announcement that issue 5 will be a special issue in association with AIC2009. This issue will
open soon, with the majority of articles scheduled for publishing in Jan 2010.”

Turquoise is 2010 colour of the year

Turquoise is 2010 colour of the year Tue, 8 Dec 2009 | By Helen Nianias

Pantone has announced 15-5519 Turquoise as its colour of the year for 2010.

“The company chose the colour for the new year as turquoise ‘transports us to an exciting tropical paradise while offering a sense of protection and healing in stressful times’.Pantone’s vice-president of strategic business development Helmut Eifert says, ‘Turquoise occupies a very special position in the world of colour. It is believed to be a protective talisman, a colour of deep compassion and healing, and a colour of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky.‘Through years of colour word-association studies, we also find that turquoise represents an escape to many – taking them to a tropical fantasy that is pleasant and inviting, even if only a fantasy.’Pantone has also included 15-5519 Turquoise as one of 200 ‘wedding colours’. Working with wedding dress manufacturers such as Dessy and Sandals Destination, Pantone aims to help brides colour co-ordinate their big day.”

via Turquoise is 2010 colour of the year | News | Design Week.